TY - CHAP
DO - 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195331653.003.0004
SN - 9780195331653
UR - http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195331653.001.0001/acprof-9780195331653-chapter-4
TI - What Do We Do Now?
T2 - Termites in the Trading System
AU - Bhagwati, Jagdish
PB - Oxford University Press
PY - 2008
LA - eng
AB - It is clearly shown that the situation regarding preferential trade agreements (PTAs) cries out for palliatives and for solutions. Three options have been explored: (1) halting the formation of new PTAs and eliminating the preferences in existing PTAs through built-in reductions of the differentials between most favored nation (MFN) tariffs on nonmembers and the preferential tariffs on members; (2) reducing the chaos of the spaghetti bowl through harmonization and similar techniques that turn the spaghetti, as it were, into lasagna; and (3) using multilateral trade negotiations such as the Doha Round to reduce the MFN tariffs to negligible levels, thus decreasing the preference by indirection: preferences relative to zero would be zero. These three options are specifically elaborated in this chapter.
KW - preferential trade agreements
KW - most favored nation tariff
KW - preferential tariff
KW - multilateral trade
KW - Doha Round
ER